Mountain Dew
Mubaraak’s voice echoes through the estate as he shouts “HUNTER! I have a task for you!” The flames on his head burn hotter than ever as the incensed efreeti gathers the guests in the main hall. He bids his servant Pocha to watch over the party as he and Hunter attend to some unknown business. Mubaraak grabs Hunter by the arm and with a flash of flame and a column of smoke he and Hunter disappear. Pocha says that dinner is to be served soon and escorts Isabella and Yorick to the dining room, where Morning Dew waits disguised as an Azer guard. Meanwhile, Blackfist remains in the strange cylindrical metal shaft he discovered just above the platform where Shadhan is kept prisoner, below the floating island. Yorick once again excuses himself to the washroom, but Pocha insists he be escorted by two guards. Yorick loses one on the way by knocking over a pillar containing a priceless suit of armor, and once alone with the second attempts to bluff his way to an easy knockout, but is caught red handed hoisting the vase intended for the back of the azer’s head aloft. He tosses it at the guard and attempts to wrestle him to the ground, when a second guard arrives he grabs a shard of pottery and quickly dispatches them. Meanwhile, Pocha excuses himself from the dining room, saying that there’s something that requires his attention, asking isabella to stay put for the time being. When he leaves, Morning Dew attempts to convince the guards to let him leave with isabella, who refuse, saying Pocha asked them to keep isabella here. Morning Dew decides enough is enough and attacks the guards, tossing isabella her hammer, and the two run after Pocha and Yorick. Yorick attempts to interrogate a guard for the location of Shadhan’s prison, but Pocha arrives and says that he will allow their deception to go no further. He attacks, and Yorick flees when he sees Isabell and Mountain Dew approach from the rear. The battle rages, and though Yorick is again dominated by Pocha’s magic, Sierra Mist uses his bow and dancing sword to keep Pocha busy while isabella delivers the final blow with a barrage of bombs. They recover the charm that opens the portal from his body, and now unhindered explore the rest of the estate. They find the mystical crystal ball that Mubaraak tried to capture Hunter with in his quarters, and a number of planar maps, charts and magic scrolls in an observatory room. In another room they find a trio of unusual animated creatures with rotund cauldron like bottoms and a large metal maw that they later discover are known as tophets. When Yorick attempts to remove it from his path, the creature bites down on his axe and nearly melts it with the internal furnace in their cauldron bottoms. Morning Dew attempts to pick the three locks on the creature’s belly but is grabbed and swallowed whole, but the party is able to cut it open before the heat consumes him. They retrieve the treasure the tophets were guarding plus three vials containing black flame. In the last room on the upper floor, the party discover a variety of incenses, candles, hookah’s and other smoking paraphernalia. They find two blocks of incense with apparent magic properties, and are able to identify one: the incense of eidos allows the user to enter a state of meditation where one can recall with perfect clarity things they had long forgotten. Using this, Morning Glory is able to recall a hint as to the location of Shadhan’s prison, and with Isabella’s perception they find the button that opens the doors on the central pillar of the estate, which leads down through the core of the island to Shadhan’s prison, reuniting with Blackfist. Yorick and Morning Dew descend the shaft and use invisibility to speak with Shadhan unnoticed by his fire giant guard. Shadhan agrees to grant the party one wish should they free him, and explain that the vials of black flame they found above are known as Ebon Flame: a powerful weapon the djiin use in the fight against the efreet that Mubaraak in his arrogance must never have found after he stole shadhan’s palace. Yorick empties the ebon flame onto the chains of elemental fire that bind the djiin and he slowly rises to his feet. Though the party intended to simply escape from here, Shadhan immediately attacks the fire giant, unleashing blasts of lightning and freezing wind. The party helps out and the giant is eventually pushed backwards off the platform. The giant grabs on to the dangling chain, causing the platform to tilt wildly off balance, but the party all manage to hang on long enough for the giant to fall to the sea of lava far below. MEANWHILE… Back on the City of Brass, Hunter stands in the sweltering heat on the small plot of land where the portal to Mubaraak’s estate lies. Hunter pinches his nose as the smell begins to overwhelm his senses. The dire extent of the depressing situation he is in begins to truly dawn on him... Hunter X, renowned bounty hunter, sole escaper of the megalabyrinth, reduced to shoveling poop off the lawn of his efreeti slave master. Mubaraak stands nearby, shouting obscenities at his neighbour, threatening to destroy all he holds dear should his pet Mini-rrasque deface his property again. Their voices echo off the surrounding buildings as the two powerful efreet argue over the pets admittedly colossal poo. As the argument winds down, Mubaraak stops and takes a moment to concentrate, before a look of frustration reappears on his face. He says “Hunter, I truly hope there’s been a misunderstanding… we are to return to the estate immediately. If what I now sense is true, then Mr. Pocha is dead, and your friends have left me little recourse but to kill each and every one of them.” Mubaraak grabs Hunter by the arm and disappears in a flash of flame and a column of smoke.